2023 Sporting News MLB awards: Historic season earns Ronald Acuña Jr. Player of the Year honor

At this point the blueprint is clear: To impress Major League Baseball players and win The Sporting News Player of the Year award — voted on solely by MLB players, as it has been since 1936 — all you have to do is something historic, break new statistical ground in a sport that’s been part of the fabric of Americana for more than a century.

That’s all. Simple enough.

OK, maybe not so simple. In 2021, Shohei Ohtani was the runaway winner of the award for his incredible season, pitching at a Cy Young level and hitting at an MVP level. The next year, even though Ohtani was again amazing, Aaron Judge was voted as TSN’s Player of the Year for his 62-home run campaign, which set the American League record. And for 2023, even though once again Ohtani continued to raise the bar, with a season arguably better than 2021 or 2023, he finished a distant second in the player voting. And I do mean distant. 

Atlanta superstar Ronald Acuña, Jr., won the award, with 242 votes, thanks to his epic 40/70 season. Ohtani was second, with 44 votes. Mookie Betts (36), Matt Olson (17) and Corey Seager (15) rounded out the top five.

MORE: Complete list of Sporting News MLB Awards

This season, he became the first player in MLB history with at least 40 home runs and at least 70 stolen bases, finishing with 41 homers and 73 steals. 

“Acuna, 40/70, I don't know if we will ever see it again,” Nationals pitcher Josiah Gray, an All-Star this season, told TSN. “Maybe he will do it again. He's that talented. I’ve been facing him since he got to the big leagues. He's a tough at-bat. He's locked in on every pitch. He can hit a fastball with the best of them and he can hammer offspeed.

“As a pitcher, you can't dodge him. First batter of the game, and he can take you deep or work a walk and he's off in the blink of an eye. It is really fascinating to see what he does.”

In first innings this season, Acuña batted .378 with a .451 on-base percentage. He hit eight leadoff home runs, to go with 10 doubles and 18 stolen bases. Oh, and he walked more times (17) than he struck out (14). We’ll get back to that one.

Acuña’s power/speed season was unprecedented. The “40/70 Club” name is the one that will stick, but this year he was also the first player ever in the 40/50 Club and the 40/60 Club. Oh, and the first to reach 30/60 and the first to 30/70. 

Let’s frame it this way: In MLB history, nobody with at least 40 home runs had ever stolen more than 46 bases (Alex Rodriguez, in 1998). And nobody with at least 70 steals had ever hit more than 28 home runs (Rickey Henderson, 1986). 

MORE: Inside Ronald Acuña's 40/70 club

And his milestone stolen bases? It was something Braves fans will remember for a long time. Acuña hit the 40-home run plateau on Sept. 22 — a leadoff homer, of course. On the 27th, the Braves were hosting the Cubs, who were chasing one of the NL’s wild-card spots. Atlanta trailed by one heading into the eighth inning. With one out, Acuña singled and promptly stole second base, his 69th of the season, then scored the tying run on a single by Ozzie Albies.

The visiting Cubs scored once in the 10th — a magic runner special — to take the lead. Acuña came up with one out and singled again, plating Atlanta’s magic runner and tying the game (oh, yeah, he had 106 RBIs this year despite batting leadoff). Everyone in the ballpark knew he was going, and he did just that, swiping second base to become the first member of the 40/70 club. Moments later, he raced hone on another single by Albies to give his Braves a walk-off win. 

No doubt, the 2023 regular season was the Summer of Acuña.

After a couple frustrating years, everything aligned heading into 2023. For one thing, MLB implemented new rule changes designed to bring more excitement to the game, and Acuña’s nothing if not exciting. The bases were larger starting this season, and pitchers were limited in the number of pick-off attempts they could make. The idea was to encourage more stolen base attempts, and that was perfect for Acuña. 

Another big reason? He was healthy. Midway through the 2021 season, Acuña tore the ACL in his right knee, ending his season. After an offseason of rehab and a delayed start to the 2022 season, Acuña returned but wasn’t quite himself. He was … fine. 

In 2023, he was actually legitimately healthy. Big difference.

“A lot of people were kind of doubting him a little bit after the injury, and last year, I don't think he was 100 percent,” Braves teammate Austin Riley told TSN. “From the beginning of spring training, he sort of had a chip on his shoulder. He was trying to prove something, and I think he did that this year.”

Did he ever. Acuna showed his durability, playing 159 games this season and leading the NL in plate appearances (735). That, along with his style of play, earned the respect of his peers, as was obvious with the TSN Player of the Year voting. 

“He's tough to face. He plays hard,” Nationals pitcher MacKenzie Gore said. “He plays hard and plays a lot of games. I like him because he plays hard, I like guys that play hard. He's fun to watch.”

Thing is, the most impressive part of Acuña’s season — the thing that really shows his growth as a player in his age-25 season — was pretty much completely overlooked because of all the home runs and stolen bases. Acuña had always been a bit of a free swinger at the plate, with a career strikeout percentage of 25.3 percent heading into 2023. 

In 2023, he cut that number to an astounding 11.4 percent. Remember how we said Acuña led the NL with 735 plate appearances? Only Marcus Semien in the AL had more. Well, Acuña struck out 84 times this season. Guess how many players struck out more than Acuña? 

219.

One telling example of Acuna’s improvement: Rowdy Tellez struck out 86 times … in 351 PAs. Tellez’s strikeout percentage in 2023 was 24.5 percent, which is lower than what Acuña’s career number was heading into this year.

Acuña’s 2023 strikeout percentage of 11.4 ranked sixth-lowest in baseball among the 133 players with enough plate appearances to qualify for the batting title. He walked 80 times. Maybe look at it that way: In 2023, Acuña walked 80 times and struck out 84 times. In 2019, his most recent full season, he walked 76 times and struck out 188 times. 

Super impressive. And he did that while leading the NL in hits and total bases and setting career highs in doubles, extra-base hits, on-base percentage, OPS+ and WAR.

“For him to do that is fascinating,” Gray said. “Up your power, up your speed, up your OPS without swinging and missing. In this day and age with the power pitchers, strikeouts are a natural part of the game. To cut your rate in half and put up gaudy numbers is something you've got to respect it. He's put in the work. Hats off to him.”

So, yeah. Shohei Ohtani had an incredible season. So did Betts and Seager and Olson.

But historic production, again, is what really impresses other MLB players, and that’s why Acuña is the 2023 TSN Player of the Year.